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International design competition to reimagine UK rail stations

July 15 2020

International design competition to reimagine UK rail stations

Network Rail has partnered with the RIBA to invite proposals for a new generation of small and medium-size rail stations to provide a better interface between the network and the communities it serves.

Solutions must apply to new build stations as well as suitable for retrofitting existing sites, addressing changing travel needs in light of the Coronavirus, climate and ecological emergencies.

Anthony Dewar, head of buildings and architecture at Network Rail, said: “Fostering creativity and developing an outward-looking, collaborative culture is a key priority for Network Rail, so I’m delighted we are hosting this competition, which gives designers a unique opportunity to leave a lasting legacy on our railway and improve the journeys of millions of passengers through quality design. "Our ambition is to raise the quality of design across the whole rail network as well as responding to the evolving role of infrastructure within communities."

The international competition is open to all architects, engineers and designers with a deadline for submissions set for 15 September. Up to three finalists will then be invited to enter into a contract with Network Rail to develop non-site specific detailed designs which could, potentially, form the basis of new stations at a future date.

The competition coincides with moves by Network Rail to demolish the disused Strathbungo Station in Glasgow, sparking efforts by the local community to save it.

8 Comments

spike
#1 Posted by spike on 15 Jul 2020 at 14:58 PM
Pity this wasn't in operation before the redesign of Queen St; this looks as though it was redesigned in the early 70's !
Fat Bloke on Tour
#2 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 15 Jul 2020 at 17:22 PM
Beat me too it -- GQS must be in the running for the biggest transport waste of money in Scotland.

Engineering marvel -- all that steel doing very little.
The scale is shocking -- hobbit sanctuary if you are being generous.

Total waste of time and effort -- if we had bought 20M carriages we could have managed to fit in 8 car trains without the track rebuild.

Total waste of time -- Glasgow Cirty centre going back to three stories after 200 years of growth upwards -- shocking.
Fat Bloke on Tour
#3 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 15 Jul 2020 at 17:58 PM
GQS -- Can it get much worse?

Yes given the lack of effort put into the low level station and the services that use it.

Bad enough to lose the proposed CrossRail curve at High Street and the proposed curve off the Cumbernauld line north of Royston Rd that would help improve the connectivity of the station but the actual physicals of the station looked limited and cheap in the 70s and so are well short of modern standards.

If the SG / GCC / SPT / SR had vision they would be looking at adding at least one other platform and improving services both to the east and west.

The usual voices will shout about congestion at Partick but that should be a challenge to be overcome with a bit of effort rather than much too hard / we don't do innovation / not for the likes of us.

Anyway just to confirm GQS -- both top and bottom -- are very poor adverts for public transport in a seemingly modern Scotland.

And please don't get me started on Croy -- the lack of desire to manage success is shameful.
Jemima Puddleworth
#4 Posted by Jemima Puddleworth on 15 Jul 2020 at 20:40 PM
A lot of people think the new Queen Street Station facade on George Square looks like the Maryhill Tesco.
devilish advocaat
#5 Posted by devilish advocaat on 16 Jul 2020 at 09:01 AM
#2/3 - so will you all be entering the competition given your strong feelings on transport design?
David
#6 Posted by David on 16 Jul 2020 at 09:45 AM
@fat bloke on tour - do you ever have anything positive to say? like maybe even hopefully this might produce some good design for a much neglected area of infrastructure? or maybe that it might tempt you to have a go yourself?...
Stretch Armstrong
#7 Posted by Stretch Armstrong on 16 Jul 2020 at 10:28 AM
@Jemima - as shocking as it is, even that is a stretch.
thomas the tank engine
#8 Posted by thomas the tank engine on 16 Jul 2020 at 20:01 PM
and here was me thinking FBOT was no more... oh well, we can but live in hope.
Just to say, the low level seating work was carried out in 1986 so you ungrateful wretches should be thankful it was at least wrestled from the evil clutches of the post-modernists.
and lastly whoever enters this could do well to look at the work of spanish minimalist architecture of suburban train stations. some timeless work in there.

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